Life
?-1601; Captain in Ireland with Essex, executed for attempting to secure
his escape; ‘wrote an historically valuable tract on the Government
of Ireland’ printed in 1772; his military career involved suspicions
of allegiance with Tyrconnell, whose loyalty he protested but afterwards
condemned for ‘arrogance’; at his trial he confessed himself
surrounded by enemies and glad of death, but asked that his estate - 700
horses - be spared for his son; he said, ‘A free tongue has ever
been my worse fault,’ and died by hanging and decapitation like a
Christian. [DNB, but review for details.] Note also that a painting by
Marcus Gheeradts survives of him dressed as an Irish kerne with bare legs;
he was married to an Irish woman (‘mere Irish’) who translated
for him in parleys; resided in the estate that he acquired at Castlemartin,
Co. Kildare. DNB DIW.
Commentary
Declan Kiberd, Inventing Ireland (1995): ‘A portrait of Sir
Thomas Lee made in 1594 depicted a physically well as spiritually hypenated
man: conventionally Elizabethan in apparel to his waist, but bare-legged
and bare-footed as any Irish kern, the implication being that he might
lapse into utter saveragy uless the erasure of Irish culture was completed.’
(p.10; probably erroneous interpretation.)
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)